Bulletin 341 - South Africa #18 - Part 1 - Bulbuls and other songbirds, antelope, lion

I had an amazing 2 week trip to South Africa and scored almost 280 new species of birds as well as fantastic mammals and a few reptiles. My guide Casper Badenhorst was outstanding. You can see his web site here. He can be contacted through the web site or if you want his email it is info@birdingandwildlifesafaris.com. I recommend him highly as he showed me so many rare birds and animals. I will use him again when I go to Southern Africa. 

Bulbuls are a large family of medium sized songbirds in Africa and Asia. I first encountered them in China last March where I photographed 7 species. I found another 4 new ones on this trip. The 8" Dark-capped Bulbul (Pycnonotus tricolor) is a brown bird with light underside and dark brown face, The vent is yellow. Sexes are similar. I thought this was a cute photo with the pair sitting side-by-side.

Dark-capped Bulbul

 The 8" Terrestrial Brownbul  (Phyllastrephus terrestris) ha a reddish brown back, a white throat and red eye.

Terrestrial Brownbul

The 9" Yellow-bellied Greenbul (Chlorocichla flaviventris) had an olive back, yellowish underside and white eye arcs.

Yellow-bellied Greenbul

The 7.5"  Sombre Greenbul (Andropadus importunus) is olive above, pale below and he has a white eye.

Sombre Greenbul

Babblers are songbirds in several different families. The 9" Arrow-marked Babbler (Turdoides jardineii) is in the laughingthrush family. They forage on the ground in leaf litter. it is a gray-brown bird with spotted breast and yellow eye.

Arrow-marked Babbler

The 4" Cape White-eye (Zosterops capensis) is of course in the white-eye family. It is olive above with a yellow throat and bright white eye ring.

Cape White-eye

The estrildid finch family is a large (141 species) family of small colorful songbirds, many of which are used in the pet trade. All the rest of the birds in this bulletin are in this family.

The 5" male Green-winged Pytilia (Pytilia melba) is olive above and on the breast, with a gray and red head, and black streaked underside.

Green-winged Pytilia - male

Twinspots all have black undersides with white pots. The 4" male Green Twinspot (Mandingoa nitidula) has an olive back and red face.

Green Twinspot - male

The 4.5" male Pink-throated Twinspot (Hypargos margaritatus) has a brown back and pink face and breast. He also has a bright blue eye ring.

Pink-throated Twinspot - male

Firefinches are all reddish. The 4" male African Firefinch (Lagonostcita rubricata) has a brown back, red underparts and pink face with a bluish bill.

African Firefinch - male

Continued on part 2